A Beginning
by Zelda
Summary: The Ducks first arrive on Earth, and are greeted by a strange creature. Introduces my character, Zelda the dragon!


Disclaimer--- Nope, don't own 'em, don't make money off of 'em

Disclaimer--- Nope, don't own 'em, don't make money off of 'em. Don't sue me Disney, you've got better things to do with your time!

Author's note--- This story is simply to introduce my character into the general continuity of the Ducks. This is the first story in a long series called The Dragon Chronicles. Not every story in this series will be listed on FF.net, but all of them are listed in chronological writing order on my webpage. If you'd like to find out more about her or other characters that will appear later in this series, visit my website at [http://members.fortunecity.com/zeldathedragon][1] and go to the information page, and the rest of my stories can be found in the fanfiction section. 

A Beginning

Mighty Ducks – The Dragon Chronicles

Written by Zelda

"Welcome to Anaheim, home of the... Mighty Frogs?!" An eye blinked as it read the billboard on the side of the highway, the mechanical eyepatch that sat on the other side of it following as well. Duke crossed his arms and stood uncomfortably on the concrete sidewalk. A warm breeze blew over his orange bill, dipping through the notch on one side. Where were they? Next to him, a hollow clinking sounded as an ivory white-feathered duck walked up next to him, decked out in his white battle armor. Duke glanced over at his leader as he pressed his gloved hands to a golden mask, and scanned the surroundings cautiously.

"Anything Wildwing?" a female voice sounded. A lean and muscular duck walked between them, running a hand through her red hair. She glanced up at her leader with confused blue eyes.

"Nope... no sign of anything here Mallory."

"That's odd." she responded.

"I wonder where they got to myself."

"Well... they could be anywhere." A nasal sniffling came from the rear of the group. Tossing her head to keep her upturned plumes of blonde hair out of her face as she leaned over, another duck clad in a purple jumpsuit was tapping studiously at a metal device that circled her wrist. 

"Are you sure Tanya?" Wildwing asked. 

"Well... I don't exactly know...." she conceeded. "It's not like I have a map of this planet or anything."

"Yeah bro., where the heck are we?" A lean Duck with long blonde hair frowned as he glanced up at his brother. He rubbed the brown patch on his beak and looked around him curiously. 

"Somewhere called Anaheim, Nosedive." Wildwing started back to his younger brother.

"This is a place of peace... I'm sensing nothing to cause bad vibes here." a deep voice said gently. A huge, gray-brown duck shuffled his black shoulderpads and pressed his hands together, bowing and closing his eyes in deep thought.

"Terrific there Grin." Nosedive mumbled. "Maybe they still have incense on this planet." 

Mallory whacked him on the arm. 

Duke shook his head. Here they were in another universe, a whole other dimension from their home. And the only thing they knew about this planet was that their enemies were here too. 

"Well, it's nice out here." Tanya commented. 

"Yeah.... it's like Puckworld.... with better weather." Mallory nodded. 

Duke closed his eyes. Puckworld. How were they ever going to get home? What would they find when they did?

"Maybe we'd better scout this area out." Wildwing started. "This area seems to be populated, we should find out what life forms are on this planet."

"Well, they could be hostile Wildwing." Tanya started. "They could be weird too. I mean, we're talking like, giant slugs with hundreds of eyes!" 

Nosedive peered over a bush to see a flat concrete surface stretched before him. Strange, bipedal creatures walking about carrying bags, going in and out of shops. A mall! "I think we're talkin' serious civilization here kiddies." he grinned. 

"I agree with Tanya." Wildwing said. "We're going to have to be really careful." 

Suddenly a palm tree nearby rustled. A dried frond fell onto the sidewalk. 

"What's up there?" Mallory asked, immediately skeptical. She reached down to the holster at her hip, and curled a hand around her puck launcher. Her favorite weapon seemed to give her confidence. 

"Easy all of you... just stay still." Duke hushed them. They stared up at the tree for a few seconds before more movement could be seen.

"Ducks?" A voice suddenly called from the treetop. 

The Ducks immediately started. Who on this planet knew of them? They drew their weapons and aimed them at the tree. 

"Please, you have no reason to fear me.... I am a friend." A female voice.... it seemed good-natured enough. 

"Show yourself." Wildwing ordered. 

The leaves parted to reveal an animal face, purple and scaly. The creature slowly opened two great, bat-like wings on the sides of her flanks, and glided down onto the sidewalk. She was a lizard, about three feet tall, scaly and purple, with four feet, blue eyes, and sharp claws. The Ducks immediately drew back. "Please Ducks!" the animal panicked. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Zelda, I am the leader of the last clan of dragons to populate this planet." 

Wildwing frowned and kept his launcher up. "You look like a Saurian." he growled. 

"Wildwing, please believe me. I know of your quest Ducks. I know of how the Saurians attacked your planet. I know of the death of your leader, Canard." Wildwing paused. Their quest....

Wildwing Flashblade had ignored the tales of long ago as a story, a fairytale for children. He'd learned as a youngster in school about how there was a great war thousands of years ago on Puckworld. He'd been told of a race of lizards: Saurians, and how they had suddenly taken the planet by storm. They cloaked themselves with alien technology, and in a matter of days had leveled the planet. The Saurians enslaved the citizens of Puckworld and made them work until they fell down dead. It was one hero, by the name of Drake DuCaine, who fashioned a golden Mask, technologically advanced enough to see through the Saurian cloaks. With his band of rebel friends, they were somehow able to defeat the immense Saurian forces, and lock them up in some type of a prison known as dimensional limbo. Great story, but it had no mention of what became of DuCaine or the Mask. No real proof of Saurian existence. Wildwing grew to think of the tale as a faded legend. Besides, there were more important things. He strived to be as good a goaltender in hockey as anyone. Hockey was his life, as were the lives of practically everyone who lived on Puckworld. With his best friend, a center by the name of Canard Thunderbeak, he grew into a young adult who focused only on school and hockey. Wildwing's little brother Nosdive, though younger only by a few years, was more childish. He believed the tales of Drake DuCaine, and spent most of his time playing arcade games and reading comic books. Still, he had a natural talent for hockey that his older brother envied. But history has a way of cutting peaceful lives short, and Wildwing learned that he should have paid more attention in history class.

Wildwing remembered the day of the Saurian attack all too well. He, Canard, and Nosedive had just finished up practicing in an alley near their homes, when suddenly the sky exploded in flame. Buildings rocked and crumbled, debris flew everywhere. The three ran out into the street to fnd huge, dinosaur-like robots toppling buildings and herding Ducks like sheep. Terrified and ignorant, the three boys ran back into the alley, only to be greeted by one of these robots face-to-face. There was a massive explosion. Wildwing remembered flying through the air and hitting the pavement hard. Nosedive was near him. The robot used its massive claws to pick the two up and walk out of the alley. It dropped the two into a crowd of panicking Ducks, all being jarred by smaller versions of the robots that towered above. Anyone who tried to run was shot clean through with a laser. Wildwing and Nosedive were powerless as they were handcuffed and shuffled off in a line. Canard had disappeared.

The next three weeks were painfully blurred. The Ducks were made to march in a line or toil a menial jobs from dawn until dusk, with no food and no bed to sleep in at night. It was a horrifying experience. Wildwing saw Ducks cut down before him for daring to oppose the Saurian forces. He worked until he nearly fainted from exhaustion every day. His brother fared worse, but Wildwing was eternally grateful that Nosedive always walked behind him in line. He could keep an eye out for him. Wildwing kept his ears open and slowly, started to learn about who these Sarurians were. He learned that the last Saurian Overlord that survived from limbo had somehow escaped, and ran his operations from a Master Tower that was invisible to the eye. Wildwing also heard rumors of a Resistance force forming from what little population was left free, but Wildwing never saw any signs of them. Weak, starving and hopeless, he and all the others enslaved had their spirits broken. History had repeated itself. He remembered the day when he passed by the alley where he had been captured, and suddenly a hand reached out and snagged him and his brother from the work lines. Canard! Wildwing remembered how happy he was to see his best friend alive. Canard was decked in armor, healthy, and happy to see his friends too. He told Wildwing that the Resistance was real. He himself was the leader. And he had the one weapon that it would take to defeat the Saurians. The Mask of Drake DuCaine! It was real! Wildwing and Nosedive were both amazed. Canard had rescued Wildwing because he thought he would be a good addition to the Resistance force. Unfortunately, Canard wanted nothing to do with Nosedive or his teenage antics. Wildwing put his foot down and refused to let Nosedive return to the work lines. Canard slowly agreed, and both of them were in. He remembered meeting the others well: Tanya Vanderflock the technology specialist, Mallory McMallard the member of the Puckworld Special Forces, Grin who possessed strength like no other. Duke L'Orange who was a former burglar, and now fought for good. It was a small, but convincing team. Wildwing and his brother were given armor and weapons. They would need them when they went after the Master Tower.

The raid on the Tower was something that scared Wildwing senseless. He remembered taking the last Aerowing that the Puckworld Aviation Forces had available up, and finding the tower with Canard's Mask. It was a huge, red structure, just as dark and hideous as the Saurians themselves. The rest of the team seemed so cool about it, even Canard handled it with his usual ruggedness. He was almost relived when Nosedive was ordered to stay behind with the Aerowing. At least he would be safe. The inside of the tower washuge, high, and smelled to high heaven. Wildwing was on his toes the whole time they trooped through that place, as the team slowly split up, Mallory and Tanya leaving to set the bomb. And so the four guys trooped on, finally stopping outside Dragaunus's chamber door. Then the bombshell, Canard had wanted Wing to serve as the bait! The only reason he was on that team was to draw Draggy out. He had never felt so small... that is of course until the Saurian Overlord himself, towering several feet above his head and cloaked in his invisibility shield, came out to face the bait. Wildwing remembered freezing up in terror as the huge lizard plucked him up and hauled him off with little resistance. In a matter of minutes he was strapped into a lowering platform... lowering him into an incineration chamber. And he remembered how sick to his stomach he felt as he sank helplessly down, the huge red Overlord staring down at him and laughing. It could have ended there... that could have been it.

Of course, it wasn't. Somehow, the Ducks he had left behind fought their way through Dragaunus's three henchmen, known as Seige, The Chameleon, and Wraith. Duke risked his own feathers to heroically swoop down and pull Wildwing from death's jaws. And just then, the explosives Tanya and Mallory set went off by accident. The oversight made it imperative to escape from the tower, and as the walls crumbled around them, Nosedive piloted the airship to make a quick pickup and save them all. Unfortunately, Dragaunus and his henchmen had also managed to get out. As the tower went up in a plume of explosions, their warship, the Raptor, sailed off into the sky. And Canard followed it. Wildwing was alarmed at first... he knew that the demolition of the master tower meant the end to the conquest of Puckworld. But Canard wanted to take down Draguanus himself. To escape the Ducks as they pursued, Dragaunus used his gateway generator to open another dimensional portal. The Ducks followed him in there too. And so, he released from his ship an electromagnetic worm. In the confines of the dimensional portal, it engulfed the Aerowing and tried to swallow it whole. The team was in a panic, as was he. The creature wouldn't be satisfied until it consumed a substancial amount of matter. Standing at the helm of the ship, he was puzzling over the situation, when suddenly someone opened the airlocked side door. Wildwing glanced back over his shoulder to see it was Canard standing there.

The memories still haunted him freshly. He could still see Canard in his mind as he bluntly told Wildwing what his plans were. HE was going to be the matter that dislodged the worm from the ship. There was no time and no other way. Wing couldn't even to protest before Canard closed his eyes and leapt. Of course he was grabbed and Wing tried to save him.... of course Wing had struggled.... he saw the look in the eyes of his best friend as the only thing that connected the two was the golden Mask. Canard looked at him with pleading eyes, and let go... the only thing Wildwing brought back onto the ship with him was the Mask. The worm faded away, and was no longer a problem. 

The pain was fresh, and the event was fresh as well. Canard may well have... died... His best friend... the team captain. Wildwing had to shake it out of his mind to continue thinking... of how the Raptor emerged on the other side of the gateway, and so did the Aerowing. And now the team was here. On a strange planet, leaderless, with this strange creature. Their quest.... was Dragaunus's destruction. That was what Canard had sacrificed himself for.... that was why the team was here. 

"We both have a common goal, Mighty Ducks." The dragon broke Wildwing's thoughts. Immediately Mallory stepped up to the creature that stood only as high as her knee. "How do you know about us?" she snapped. 

The dragon paused. "I have my ways." she said slowly. "You see, the Saurian race and the dragon race are linked by common ancestry. Millions of years ago, great lizards called dinosaurs roamed this earth, from which both Saurians and dragons were born. But a comet slammed into this planet 65 million years ago, leaving a wave of devastation. A small number of dragons hid in a cave in the frozen north, and they were the only dragons to survive a great disease that nearly made us extinct. It killed all of our dinosaur ancestors... and we thought it killed the Saurians too."

"Well were you ever wrong." Nosedive snorted. 

"We never knew they had somehow left the planet... until now." the dragon shook her head. "Somehow, they must have invented a method for dimensional travel. You unfortunately know the rest. Now, Dragaunus is the only Overlord left. And he wishes to destroy the very planet that bore his kind."

"That's you're bit with him eh?" Duke asked. 

The dragon nodded. "We dragons protect our home... as you did." she drew herself up proudly.

"So you want to join us." Wildwing was obviously doubtful.

"Ducks." Zelda reasoned. "You are on an alien planet, with a new human race to adapt to. This planet is large and it's history and present are both diverse and confusing. I know this earth like the back of my wing. I can help you settle in here... the humans trust my kind... ask them yourself." the dragon paused. "We have common goals. I will fight against Dragaunus tooth and claw with or without you. But you are the only six on this planet who have the knowledge and the experience to take the Saurians down for good. Together, with our combined forces... we can have the advantage." The dragon spoke gently, with pleading eyes. 

Wildwing rubbed his beak in thought, then signaled for the team to huddle. "Well?" he asked.

"No way." Mallory snorted. "That... thing... looks like a Saurian. How doe she know our story?! She could be a spy!"

"Duke?" Wildwing asked.

"I dunno Wing." Duke shook his head. "She does have a point... but it is risky."

"I think she's right big bro... I mean... those humans are gonna freak when they see us. How are we gonna find Draggy without their help?"

"She's telling the truth." Grin said simply.

"And how do you know that?" Tanya asked. 

"I can tell." Grin bowed his head. "She has a noble soul. She'll be of great help to us." Wildwing still thought.

"But she could be a spy!" Mallory reasserted, stubbornly. "We wouldn't be able to turn our backs on her for a second!"

"Heh, we have now." The amusement in Duke's Brooklyn accent was evident as Mallory looked up at him. He was absolutely right. If she wanted a shot at the huddling team, she certainly had it. 

Wildwing frowned. "Alright... we'll let her in, _but we'll keep her at a wing's length. I don't trust her either. She'll have to prove herself." The Duck turned around and folded his arms before the dragon. "Welcome to the team." he spoke gruffly. _

She smiled back a him, her teeth glittering but her eyes honest. "These are unfortunate circumstances, in which you'll be introduced to Earth." she looked out over the path. "It is such a beautiful planet, yet human cities... well... they are not the place for me. Still, I know this one pretty well."

"Where are we, exactly?" Tanya peered down at her. 

"This is the city of Anaheim, in a state called California. Humans have fashioned a rather complicated way of dividing up the lands and seas here, perhaps later would be a better time to explain."

"Are those things humans?" Dive pointed to the people walking amidst the mall. 

Zelda nodded. 

"Dude, they're UGLY!" he started to laugh.

Zelda chuckled in response. "Think what you may of them, they're the dominant species on this planet. So I guess you could say that you don't want to make them mad. They've never had true contact with an alien species before, and they tend to fear what they don't understand."

"Makes sense to me." Duke watched the people as they were off shopping.

"This is weird." Mallory shook her head. "I mean… they really do look kinda like us! Without the feathers and beaks and stuff."

"No way…" A grin was spreading across Nosedive's beak as he spoke. "Tell me that's not a comic book shop over there!" 

Zelda looked across the mall to a storefront, overshadowed by a giant sign that read 'Captain Comics'. "Yes, that is." she nodded.

"Coolella!" Nosedive cheered. "They got comics on this planet! I'm so there!" He jumped up and walked right through the bushes, onto the pavilion of the mall.

"Nosedive, get back here!" Wildwing hissed. "We've gotta stay hidden!"

Zelda looked at the people nervously as they began to notice the young Duck amongst them, and weren't too sure what to make of him at all. "I think he'll be alright, but we should go with him. Come on." she gestured quickly, and began to pace out through the bushes.

"Great, that little punk is gonna get us killed." Mallory growled, glaring at Nosedive.

"That little punk is my brother." Wildwing folded his arms. "We know how to defend ourselves if we get into a skirmish. Let's just go." 

One by one, the team filed out of the brush, and walked across the mall. It was obvious that they were nervous, staring at all the people that were looking curiously back at them. One small child broke from its mother and approached Grin.

"Are… are you from Disneyland?" the little girl asked in amazement.

"Disney land?" Grin repeated, not understanding. 

Zelda was quick to back Grin up, smiling gently at the girl and coming right up to her. "You could say that. Now go on, your mother's probably looking for you." She shooed the girl back to her impatiently waiting mother. Now that they had heard Zelda's answer, most of the people were walking nonchalantly off.

"What's Disney land?" Grin looked down at the diminutive Zelda.

"It's a theme park, just over the highway there." Zelda pointed into the distance. "They have characters that dress up in costumes, so I guess she thought you were in costume too." 

"Now there's a good cover!" Duke remarked.

"Come on you guys, we've got some catching up to do…" Wildwing waved them on, seeing that Nosedive had long since disappeared into the comics store. As he pushed open a swinging glass door, he saw two _very_ odd looking young humans, cowering behind a desk with a cash register to his right. "Nosedive?" he called.

"Over here bro!" Nosedive waved from a rack of comics. "You should see some of the stuff they got here!" 

Wildwing rolled his eyes and followed his brother as the rest of the team filed in. 

From behind the counter, a human girl with a mohawk of purple hair started to stand up. "You---you guys are aliens… right?" she stuttered. 

"Don't be scared!" Nosedive waved at her, smirking. "We've totally come for your comics." 

"Whoa!" A young man stood up with her. "Awesome!" 

"Man Thrash!" the girl turned to him. "They're like, from Mars!" 

"Not really." Tanya told them, pausing at their rather strange clothing and hair color. "From another dimension, actually." 

"Even more cool!" the girl celebrated. "It's like, totally an honor. I'm Mookie, and this is Thrash." she gestured to the man beside her.

"Yeah, we run this place." he nodded.

"I gotta hang with you dudes more often!" Nosedive grinned. 

As the three were conversing, the rest of the team was exploring the shop. Duke picked up a plastic watergun, peering at the device as he turned it over.

"Careful." Mallory started. "That could be this planet's version of a standard blaster!"

Duke squeezed the trigger, shooting water across the shop, and all over Grin's face. 

The big Duck looked surprised for a moment, then wiped himself off.

"They must have some interesting wars on this planet." Wildwing commented with a light smirk. "But I'm wondering if they've got any hockey." 

"You guys into hockey?" Thrash overheard the conversation. 

"You could say that." Mallory smirked. "We kinda eat, drink, and live the sport. Know anywhere that we could play around here?"

"Do I ever, follow me my fellow dudes and dudettes!" Thrash waved them towards a door in the back, and pushed it open to reveal that it was an exit to the back side of the strip mall. In the distance, between the fronds of palm trees, a large salmon pink building rose up across the street. It had a teal roof, and a large green glass archway that spanned a good half of one face. "The Anaheim Pond!" He declared, pointing at it. "Best hockey arena in town… and also the emptiest."

"It looks like a nice building." Wildwing commented. "Why would it be empty?"

Zelda trotted out beside him, and looked up. "The team moved across the country, to New Jersey." she shook her head. "Not too much of a shame, they were really never that good anyway."

"Couldn't even attract enough fans to fill the building." Thrash snorted. "But they run an open rink now, for anyone who wants to play."

Wildwing nodded, looking back towards the rest of his team. "We need to play hockey to keep our edge around here. I think we should check it out."

"Well, nice meetin' ya." Thrash nodded to them. "Seriously, come back here and chill anytime you wanna!" 

"Will follow up on that offer bro!" Nosedive waved, as he and the others started off across the street.

The team's shadow fell across a solitary man. He was alone in the complex, as there were almost no cars in the parking lot and nobody on the sidewalk around the building. This short, fat man was thumbing through papers in a briefcase, totally unaware of the Ducks until they blocked his sun. But when he looked up, he screamed out, startled, and rolled back a bit. Once he got used to the light, he looked at them, and wasn't scared at all.

"Whew, don't do that to me!" he wiped his brow. "If you're looking for the theme park, it's just across the freeway." 

"We're here to play hockey." Wildwing corrected rather gruffly. 

"Hockey, in costume?" he raised an eyebrow.

"They're not in costume." Zelda explained, weaving through the legs of several Ducks, to face the human. "I'll explain, if you'll let us in."

The man took another look at the Ducks, then shrugged. "It's a free country." he said. "Come on, I'll show you in."

"My name's Phil Palmfeather." the man explained, as he sat down on a locker room bench next to Wildwing. The leader was busy gearing up to play, and while he strapped on his leg pads, seemed to try and ignore the man. "Yeah, you're right, there was another team here before, I was their manager. They picked up and moved to Piscataway, decided to replace me at the same time." he huffed. "So I've been hanging around here for months, just trying to find a bunch of players good enough to get the NHL to warrant starting a franchise up here again."

"The NHL?" Wildwing asked.

"National Hockey Leauge, you've never heard of it?" Phil said. "Anyway, they won't start up another team unless they feel they can pull in enough fans. So until then, I'm out of a job."

"Look, that's really unfortunate and all, but can we play now?" Wildwing stood, pulling a spare practice jersey on over his gear. 

"Yeah, sure! But, umm, there's kind of a complication with that…"

"Guys?" Zelda called from the tunnel that led out of the locker room and to the ice. "The rink's kinda occupied at the moment…"

As the team charged out onto the ice to face the mangy, scraggly band of hockey players that currently held authority over it, Zelda found her way up into the stands. But not too far. She was very carefully watching the Ducks, and in observing them, was starting to learn the natures and habits of each. The team was freshly formed, just like she had heard. But there was already a warmth, a sense of cooperation and respect between them. As she rubbed her mandible in thought, Phil came down and sat next to her, watching with a little nervousness.

"So, you with them?" he asked, glancing over for a moment as crunching noises reigned from the ice.

"I suppose I am." Zelda nodded, smiling a little. Indeed, Wildwing had said that she was part of the team. And what a part she would have to play, especially in the coming weeks. Getting a small band of alien Ducks to feel at home on a planet like this wouldn't be easy to accomplish. But she had the feeling that they would grow to like it on Earth. After all, they didn't seem to be too distantly separated from humans. 

"Yeah well, these guys actually look good!" Phil was chattering away. "These goons have been taking up the stadium for weeks, never let another group so much as get in a period. But these Ducks sure are showin' them up!" 

They possessed a great deal of strength, when they were all united. Zelda flattened her ears in thinking about their missing leader. There could be a space for her to fill on this team. Whatever she could do to help, she'd be willing. She was looking at the only six creatures on the entire planet who had any ability to combat the remnants of the once mighty Saurian empire. 

Phil reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, quickly starting to dial. "These guys are terrific!" he grinned. "I'm gonna call up the NHL board members right now, I think we've got ourselves a new team! The heck with the Mighty Frogs, Anaheim's gonna have some Mighty Ducks as a replacement!"

Zelda smiled, turning back to watch the team that she was now a part of. Yes, they were here to stay. Today the world would have to welcome a new breed of heroes altogether. She felt that they would be far from disappointed.

The End

   [1]: http://members.fortunecity.com/zeldathedragon



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